


Afterimages

by kikibug13



Category: Crimson Peak (2015)
Genre: F/M, Family, Post-Canon, ambiguous - Freeform, release
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-19
Updated: 2015-12-19
Packaged: 2018-05-07 18:17:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5466215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kikibug13/pseuds/kikibug13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The story ended. The ghosts were left behind. But life, life goes on.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Afterimages

**Author's Note:**

  * For [laughingacademy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/laughingacademy/gifts).



> Many thanks to akurou and evocates for the beta!

"I don't understand how you can just stand there and let them say all those horrible things to you, Edith."

Alan's words were angry, but quiet enough. He knew better than anyone just how badly she took sharp, loud noises, right now. His displeasure was directed at his own mother and sister, who were shunning her abominably, and their tongues were sharper than ever. Well, the mother's. Eunice had never been particularly brilliant with her words, but now she was finding some rather interesting phrases to use. 

Edith might have minded a lot more, before... before Crimson Peak. She certainly would have had barbs of her own to lay in the path of the two ladies.

She didn't speak much, now. It wasn't that she couldn't, she just didn't feel like it. Few things seemed important enough to merit words from her. Alan knew that. Alan understood, far too well. 

Alan looked at her with the eyes that somebody else had looked at her, and Edith had to close her eyes, if only for a moment, against that. 

"If they only knew what you saved my sister from! They should be grateful, they should be--" He trailed off as Edith reached across the distance between them and laid a hand over his arm. The blue eyes met hers, and she smiled, quiet voice settling his objections better than anything else. 

"Let them have their own ghosts, Alan. They are such benign ghosts." Ghost Edith was so much better for them than the Edith they would have to deal with if she answered. 

Alan looked her for another long moment, then gave her a small nod in acknowledgment. 

"Have you returned to writing?" The change of topic was appreciated, and she rewarded him with a small smile, and then a nod. "Will you let me read it, before you send it off to strangers?" 

She neither nodded nor shook her head at that, just kept her eyes on him until his own dropped. "When I'm strong enough. I understand." He hesitated, as though about to add something more, but he didn't. Neither of them said _thank you_ to the other, not anymore. 

It was all too complicated. 

***

The fluid, sharp, precise tones of the piano spilled over the muddy floor of Alderdale Hall when Edith's shoes walked across the threshold of nightmares and tragedy again. She had made sure it had been locked and let to its rest, before she left for the States again. And now she had returned. 

Five steps in, and Lucille's ghost was flying across the distance against her. Edith didn't flinch. She didn't back away. 

"Leave!" Lucille's beautiful lips still formed the words beautifully. "You have no place here!" 

Edith watched her for a few moments, then stepped around her to leave her hat on the small table. It was covered in dust and filth. Edith put her hat on it upside down, she wanted to be able to put it on quickly, and she honestly didn't care if somebody noticed that it was dirty. She didn't want that on her hair, however.

Lucille's fingers wrapped around her throat. They were long and cold, and knowing. Unlike before, however, they couldn't be strong. After realizing the futility of the attempt, Lucille screamed her frustration. 

*** 

After she visited all the important rooms, she could see that all the ghosts were still here. Lucille was shading her. Thomas looked up at her, and then returned to hunching over some old notes, too guilty for more, but his pale shape seemed to glow, so different from everyone else...

In the end, Edith addressed them all while standing by his huddled shape.

"I have found an exorcism that works." She definitely had their attention, now. "I can set you free."

It had taken her years. It had taken her almost half as long to decide what she wanted to do, what she could do. She wanted to protect the other women, and Thomas, from Lucille. From her mother. But they were in a different world from her, and she couldn't. They couldn't leave this place, no matter what different countries the previous E. S. came from, no matter how far Lucille and Thomas had traveled. This was the place they were bound to. 

This was the place she could free them at. 

"Edith? Does that mean that you'll rebuild the house?" 

She looked at her husband sadly. Shook her head. "I'm sorry. If you all choose freedom, then I'll have the house leveled. It'll be free, as well."

She looked at them all in turn, then stepped towards the stairs again. "Find me, each separately, and tell me which you choose." 

"That is ridiculous." Lucille's voice was scornful. "If one of us wants to stay, that means all are tied up here." 

Edith smiled over her shoulder, and resumed walking. 

***

The only reason Lucille had agreed to leave was that her mother had insisted on staying. The only reason the old ghost had agreed to leave was that she'd found herself alone. 

The only reason Thomas had agreed to leave was that Edith had promised him that she would make sure the estate was cared for. He'd been so sad, but he understood. As well as anyone else, he could feel how tired the old house was. 

Edith was going to have a second exorcism for the house itself, after it was demolished. 

*** 

Edith returned to America just in time to catch the first steps of Alan's daughter. He was so proud, and his wife - Marianne, as beautiful to rival Lucille but infinitely kinder - looked like she was both happy and terrified at how much the girl's range of exploration expanded. Marianne was color-blind. 

They had all met Marianne as she applied for the care of Eunice's oldest two children. Eunice's health had taken a turn for the worse, with the frequent pregnancies, but there was nothing she would do about it, and, even still, Eunice would very definitely not listen to advice from her long-ago friend. Marianne, on the other hand, adored Edith. 

Marianne, quite possibly, could also see ghosts. Or sense them. Edith could not get her to talk about it, but there had been one scream, once, and Edith knew the reason for it. 

At home, Edith found her next publication note for a series of short stories. 

*** 

Edith woke up, still sick and cold and the blood barely washed from her hands. The carriage was bringing them closer to the sea, and Alan's body, though still in pain from the stabbing, was warm and solid, his arm comforting around her shoulder. 

She stayed awake, letting him sleep. The clatter of the wheels on the road, the splashes, even the skids on the cold road, were a far more welcome sound than the echo of a waltz that her dream brought to her.


End file.
